Part 2

Toward dawn, Hermione began to dream. It was a familiar dream; she was in a forest, but nothing like she experienced during the war. This forest was warm and full of light. There was a grove of trees and within the trees, stood a four poster bed made of light coloured wood and dressed with the loveliest and softest looking white linens and loads of pillows. Netting hung from the posts, adding a rather luxurious feel to the atmosphere. Upon the bed, as usual in her dream, was a dark clad body, which was long and lithe. With a smile, she went to him and was welcomed with a hand reaching toward her. Hermione eagerly grasped the hand, and as the man pulled her down, he kissed her deeply. The kiss set off tingles straight to her toes, and she moaned in pleasure.

The man became bolder in his kiss, and his hands began to pleasure her body, slowly making their way around the apparently familiar curves of her waist and breasts. They stopped at her nipples and plucked them, her moans giving him permission to continue. He feathered the tips of his fingers down her tummy and then farther to cup her between her legs. Her body reacted instinctively, and she arched into the hand.

Severus first became aware of a movement against his body before he heard the moan. As his senses heightened, he was suddenly aware that Hermione must be dreaming and not realising that her hips were arching into his buttocks or that she was moaning. He took a moment to enjoy how her body moulded against his before he realised he shouldn't be lusting after her like this.

"Hermione, wake up!"

She only moaned and ground harder.

"Hermione, you need to wake up now."

"Whu-?" She realised what she was doing and flipped herself away, falling out of bed as a result.

Severus scrambled over to make sure she was all right. Glaring, Hermione stood and stomped off to the bathroom, slamming the door.

"Hermione! I'm sorry; I didn't mean to make you fall out of bed. Hermione?"

"I'm okay, Severus. Just my pride."

"Do you want me to order breakfast while you're in there?"

"Yeah, that'll be fine." She heard Severus move away from the door, and then she switched on the shower. She stepped in, and as the water ran down her back, she slapped the wall. She was at once both mortified over the fact she humped her former professor and yet so horny she really did want to jump him. There was no privacy in this small bathroom to use the shower head to alleviate her desire, so she shook her head to clear her thoughts and quickly washed. When she was done, she stepped out of the stall, dried and wrapped the towel around her. She opened the door and told Severus it was his turn. He quickly slipped in, and Hermione dressed for the day. When Severus was done, they switched places, and she attended to her hair while he dressed.

Over breakfast, the tension melted away, much like it had the day before, and the two planned their day. They would take in the exposition at Cambridge and then whatever else might take their fancy. Plans in place, they finished breakfast and slipped away from the crowds chatting in the lobby.

After a long and wonderful day full of sightseeing and the exposition in the museum, they returned to the hotel and first went to the front desk to enquire about an open room. Natalie apologised profusely, but told them that none were available yet. She did notice they weren't too upset to discover they would need to continue to share a room. As Hermione and Severus left the desk, she smiled and giggled. It seemed the Minister's plan was coming to fruition. The staff who were 'in on it' reported all sorts of things they had noticed. The house elf who cleaned their room had told her that there was no sign of anyone sleeping on the floor or having transfigured any furniture into a bed. In fact, the elf had founds loose hairs from them both on their pillows.

Natalie turned to attend her next job duty, but spied the conspirators and waved them over to her desk. "I have news," she told them.

"And?" asked Harry.

"The elves reported that there has been no magic in the room indicating that the bed or other furniture has been converted. In fact, hair from both of them has been found on the pillows in the bed."

"But one of them could be sleeping on the floor," interjected Ron.

Natalie shook her head. "The elf found no reason to believe that a pallet had been made on the floor, either."

Harry and Ron looked at each other and smiled. "Let's go find Minerva," Harry said, and the pair hurried away.

That night, Severus and Hermione decided to eat dinner again with Harry, Ron, Minerva and Kingsley. Bravely, they bemoaned the lack of extra room when Harry asked about it. Minerva inquired which lectures they'd been attending—knowing full well they had skived off again—and was bemused when Severus deflected the question by asking which ones they had attended and deftly made sure he and Hermione were apparently at ones they were not.

Harry and Ron expressed amusement over the fact that neither had killed the other yet; they knew from their year on the run Hermione could get rather…testy if she didn't sleep well.

Once the couple were in the room after dinner, they had decided they'd better spend some time at the lectures, so they reviewed the programme together. Severus decided to attend the lecture on updates in patent registrations—he had several coming due—and Hermione chose the one about changes to import/export laws. They were required to attend the trust building workshop at the end of the day, and thought it would be an easy way to end the day with little headache.

SSHG SSHG

"Severus, Hermione," cried Minerva the next morning. "You've actually decided to honour us with your attendance!"

"Having to share a room has caused our routines to become…entangled," Severus dryly stated. "We've not had time to attend meals here before our first lectures."

Harry and Ron snorted as Minerva said, "I'm sure."

Hermione, suspicious over the others' demeanour, briskly asked what was tasty on the menu in order to avoid questions. Breakfast continued quietly and before long, the group was splitting up to attend their programs.

After lunch, Severus and Hermione met up at the one lecture they were mandated to attend. It was an exercise in team building, which was to slated to start in Kew Gardens. The leader instructed all the participants to Apparate to the secure arrival location just south of the gardens. The group should plan to meet up in twenty minutes at the starting point. Severus and Hermione walked together to the Apparition point in the hotel and, after a brief conversation, side-alonged to the gardens.

"We should have come here yesterday," said Hermione. "It's gorgeous, isn't it?"

"We could go this weekend if you'd like. I'm sure there are some cuttings I could acquire."

Hermione snorted. "Leave it to you to find a practical purpose for an afternoon together."

"I believe the zoo was not practical."

Hermione laughed as the pair made their way to starting point indicated on their brochure. There were many people they knew all milling about and chatting while waiting for the leader to arrive. Hermione noticed Harry, Ron, Minerva, and Kingsley and with a nudge of her elbow, directed Severus over to them.

The leader of the session gathered them together, introduced himself as Bert Boldt, and began to explain the object of the lesson. "Often times, we feel that we can count on our friends to have our backs, so to speak, at every moment. In war, as many of you experienced, this is true. However, if you're disabled in some way that caused your friend to have to act in a more…intimate way, how would you respond? Do you trust your partners enough to lead you from danger you can't see?" Boldt looked around and saw many snickers and smiles.

"That's the response I usually get. Well, I'm about to change that perception. When you have two eyes, you can see and understand what's about to happen. Even if you only had one—now, now, hold it down," he said over the jovial mutters of 'Moody' and 'Mad-eye'. "I know that with magic we can restore eye sight but only if you are at St. Mungo's or have access to another well-qualified healer. But in the field, where you'd have the most rudimentary of healing spells, you wouldn't."

The leader magicked up enough blindfolds for eighteen of the thirty-six in attendance. "I want you to double up. That's it," he said as he watched friends stand next to each other. With a glint in his eye, he watched Hermione and Severus continue to stand near each other while they were apparently overlooked as potential partners. Kingsley has planned this exercise out very well indeed, he thought.

"Everyone have their partners? Good! Now," he sent the blindfolds into the crowd with a flick of his wrist, "place the blindfold over your partner's eyes, and don't hesitate to use a bit of magic to ensure they can't see."

"Mr. Boldt," hollered Ron, "why don't we just use a magical blindfold?"

"Good question, Weasley," Boldt responded. "Since we're doing the exercise in a Muggle dominated area, we don't want the Muggles to think we're showing blind students around, the blindfold makes it obvious that we are conducting some sort of exercise. Now, about those objectives I mentioned." He flicked his wrist and a stack of parchment appeared in his hand.

"I want each of the sighted partners to take this paper and follow the instructions. You will lead your partner through a series of activities that will require you to direct them over, under, in and out of buildings or other obstacles. You must guide them by voice and with gestures to help them navigate. You will even be required to help them eat a meal. The morning group enjoyed the exercise very much."

By this time, Severus snorted. "Oh, this is too easy; I was a spy for Merlin's sake. I am trained to use my senses if others are impaired."

"Yes, but you often relied on yourself. Now you have to rely on me."

"Well, there are worse things, I suppose."

"Really, Severus? You trust me that much that I wouldn't let you topple over into a dust bin or trip into a hole?"

"I'd trust you. If I were with Potter or Weasley…"

Hermione laughed again. "Well, come along then." She slipped her hand into Severus' and was momentarily discomfited to realise how well her hand fit into his palm. She was speechless when she felt his thumb caress the back of her hand. She cleared her throat, "Come on. I need to get you over to the first objective on the sheet here. Goodness, that's quite a circuitous route. It would be easier if we went—"

Her contemplation was cut off by Mr. Boldt. "I'm sorry, Miss Granger, but part of the exercise involves following the plan specifically. We included obstacles that will require the most communication in order for you to convey your partner safely back to this spot at the end of their turn."

Hermione sighed but shook her head. "All right. Are you ready, Severus?" He nodded, and with a firm but reassuring tug on his hand, she led him away from the meeting place.

The route from the Green led them over several different surface textures such as stone, grass and a thick layering of pine straw, all of which caused Severus to stumble at first, but his innate sense of self and ability to use his other senses under adverse conditions had him righting himself and moving with ease in no time. Hermione, in the meantime, kept up a quiet patter of 'left' or 'right' as needed as well as squeezes of his hand to direct him quite well.

The first obstacle came when they encountered the Log Trail, a play area made of irregularly shaped pavers of cut logs of varying widths as well as full logs leaning against other logs. There were gaps between the logs, meaning that Hermione not only had to give him an idea of how large the step was, but how far between each step he'd need to let his foot travel before stepping down again. Once or twice, Severus lost his footing, but Hermione was there to quickly help him steady himself. When they were a quarter of the way along the trail, they fell into a pattern of 'step, step, hold, lift' so that Severus could walk unimpeded.

"Are you okay, Severus?" asked Hermione as they walked along a relatively smooth bit of pavement.

"I'm all right. Are we near Queen Charlotte's Cottage by chance?"

"Why yes we are! How could you tell?"

Instead of answering straight away, he asked, "What do you see?"

"The lavender, of course and an expanse of grass. There's a lovely thatched cottage, and the bright blue sky."

"Exactly. I can see none of that. I can, however, hear the bees pollinating among the blossoms and of course, smell the lavender. Having been here once before, I remembered the Queen's Cottage was near a field of lavender."

"Oh, there are bees. And lots of them. Oh, hey, I think they like my perfume, they're starting to fly near."

"Let's get out of here then. I don't fancy getting stung. Where to next?"

"I'm not supposed to tell you," she giggled. Tugging slightly on his hand, she pulled him forward on their way.

After a ten minute walk, the pair arrived at the Tree Top Walkway. "Oh wow!" said Hermione.

"What?"

"We're at the Tree Top Walkway!"

"What is that?"

"The Gardens built it several years ago. It's a way to see the garden and tree top habitat from above. We've got to climb 115 or so steps, Severus; are you up to it?"

"I will forgive you that horrible pun firstly. Secondly, you forget I lived in a castle with 142 sets of staircases? That I patrolled nightly for nearly twenty years?"

Hermione huffed good-naturedly and pulled him forward. "Here's the first step then. The steps are about seven inches apart. There are rails on both sides. Traffic has to go all one way, so we won't have to worry about running into anyone."

For several minutes they climbed, Severus stumbling several times, but Hermione, who had her hand on his arm the entire time, never let him fall. She noted he was stiff the first time he stumbled, but as he realised she was there, he relaxed. They stepped out onto the platform and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Oh, Severus; it's simply lovely!"

"I'll take your word for it," he said dryly.

"Well, Mr. I-Was-A-Spy-And-Used-All-My-Senses, tell me what you sense then."

Severus pinched her arm and turned to his right. "We are up quite high, and the walkway sways ever so slightly. I can smell more natural scents."

"Natural scents?" Hermione asked.

"At ground level there are more human produced smells such as food, cars, body odour."

"Ew."

"Up here, though, the human produced smells are filtered by the leaves naturally, so there are less of them and more of the environmentally natural smells. The trees, the air, that sort of thing."

"What do you hear?"

"Birds of course, insects flying. The leaves rustling."

"It's peaceful, actually, don't you think?"

"Yes, it is. Hermione, let me attempt to walk without you guiding me."

"Okay. The path is about four feet across and there are rails on either side."

"Of course there are rails."

Hermione chuckled as Severus began to walk alone. He weaved back and forth, running into the rail at first, before he seemed to sense his surroundings and began to walking steadily forward. Until the first bend in the path and then he ran a hip into the corner of a rail.

"Can I at least keep my hand on your arm?" asked Hermione as she watched Severus rub his hip.

"That might be best."

Without further difficulty, they managed the rest of the Tree Top walkway and the trip down, which was a bit more difficult than the trip up. Severus' feet were longer than the tread, and he tended to drop a foot off before the other followed. It was only by Hermione's constant patter of 'down, down, down' and her hand firmly held within his, that he made it.

"Our next task is a cup of tea and something to eat," she said. "There's a café about one hundred yards to the north; we'll go there, okay?"

"That sounds fine. I could use a cuppa about now. Can I take my blindfold off?"

Hermione consulted the paper. "No. According to the parchment, you must try to eat with it on."

Severus growled. "Let's go then and get this over. How many more tasks?"

"This is the last one. Once we eat, we are to go back to the starting point where, oh," she gasped.

"What's the matter?"

"It says here we trade places. You'll lead me on a similar exercise, only one or two of the tasks are different."

Severus laughed. "I shall take good care of you, I promise."

"Why do I suspect you're lying?"

"Me? Lie? I'm appalled you'd even think so," Severus stated dramatically.

"Oh, come along you," said Hermione.

As they entered the café, Hermione noted that several others from the conference were already there. "Oh, Minerva is here with Kingsley. He must have fallen as there is a grass stain on his robes. Wonder why Minerva didn't clean it? And there are Ron and Harry. We didn't see them on our route." Hermione waved to the others. "Ron has a scrape on his nose although it doesn't surprise me if Harry let him bump into something on purpose." Hermione was right, as she discovered later, that Harry wasn't as careful with Ron as she was with Severus. Not that she'd let him come to harm. She cared too much for him. That particular thought startled her, and as she began to dwell on it, Severus interrupted her.

"Well, I would imagine they'd keep us separated in order not to slow down the other patrons in the gardens by our bumbling around."

"Good point," she said distractedly. "What do you want to eat?"

"Just a cup of tea and a pastry of some sort."

Hermione guided Severus to a table and as he sat, she hurried off to get their snack. She returned with two cups of tea, a tart for herself and a croissant and jam for Severus.

"I've set your cup at two o'clock, and the plate with the croissant directly in front of you. There is some jam. Do you want to try to spread it yourself?"

"Yes."

"Okay, I've laid a knife to the right of the plate and opened the tub of jam. I've put that at the nine o'clock position on your plate."

As though he could see, Severus picked up the croissant and tore a bit from the bread. He then set it down and picked up his knife. Using his left hand to steady the little tub of jam, he dipped his knife into it. He picked up the bit of roll with this free hand and spread the jam on it. Or at least he thought he did.

"Erm, Severus; there's no jam on the knife."

Huffing, he tried again and was successful. He laid down the knife and picked up the tea, taking a bracing sip. "That's lovely. What are you having?"

"A custard tart," she replied as she watched Severus' hands manage another bit of roll and jam. Gods he has such sexy hands, she thought and then shoved a piece of tart into her mouth before she did something embarrassing like moan.

Hermione watched Severus as he managed the croissant and his cup of tea. Even blindfolded he was precise and elegant. Damn it all to hell, she muttered as she finally admitted to herself that she fancied the man. The events of this week had caused her to see him in a whole other light—one that she liked very much. She wondered if he felt the same or would even consider at least going on a date with her. A red blob on his chin distracted her train of thought.

"Got some jam on you," said Hermione.

"Where?"asked Severus, wiping his face.

"On your chin...no, to the left," she directed.

"Did I get it?"

"No, let me." She carefully wiped his chin with her thumb and then gasped when he grabbed her hand and sucked the jam off, his lips warm and wet, and his tongue rough against her skin as he worked the jam off. Her belly flopped, and she was certain if he'd kept it up, she'd have an orgasm.

"Why did you do that?" she asked in a whisper.

Severus paled and immediately pushed away from the table. "I don't know," he gruffly answered. "I think," he paused to clear his throat, "I think we should head back to the meeting point to continue the exercise."

"All right."

Quietly and uncomfortably, they left the café and quickly made their way back to the starting point. There were no obstacles to travel so they made it back rather quickly. Once Severus took off his blindfold, he made an excuse to use the bathroom, and the pair separated, both needing a bit of time to compose themselves.

SSHG SSHG

Back at the café, Minerva and Harry were reacting to the scene that had played out before them. Harry—borrowing Ron's favourite phrase—stammered out, "Bloody hell."

"What? What's bloody hell?" asked Ron, looking around as though he could see something.

"What happened, Minerva?" Kingsley's deep voice asked.

"I don't know," said Minerva carefully. "Hermione and Severus were having tea a few tables over from us. Severus got some jam on his chin, and Hermione tried to tell him where it was. He kept missing it with his hand, so Hermione reached over and…" her voice trailed off.

Harry audibly gulped and finished the story. "Hermione used her thumb to wipe it off, and Snape grabbed her hand and then sucked the jam off her thumb."

Ron rubbed his eyes through the blindfold. "Visions, Harry, visions. Please, someone, Obliviate me!"

Kingsley shifted in his chair. "But this is what we wanted, wasn't it? Those two are sexual tension personified, and it's just waiting to explode. Why is that a bad thing?"

Minerva spoke, "Yes we did, but to observe something so…so…sensual was a bit disturbing."

"But, Minerva," Harry asked, "why did they look so flustered?"

"Because, Mr. Potter, I suspect they are only coming to terms with their feelings for each other, and they didn't expect their reactions to be so visceral."

Kingsley slowly stood up using the table to guide him. "Either way, it's a start. Where they go from here is up to them. However with a little more pushing from us, I suspect it won't be much longer until they decide one way or the other. Now," he stated, turning his head as though he could see the exit, "let's get back to the meeting point so I can get this ruddy blindfold off, and we switch roles."

"Switch roles?" asked Minerva.

"Didn't you hear Boldt say that we'd switch roles after a tea break? I, my dear lady, get to escort you around the grounds next."

Ron laughed. "Watch out Harry! It'll be payback time for my nose!"

"Bloody hell," Harry moaned.

SSHG SSHG

Severus stood at the sink washing his hands. If he weren't in a public place, he'd be smacking his forehead into the mirror. When he had first entered a stall, he had had to calm his burgeoning erection in order to piss.

Why in the name of Merlin's left tit did I do that?! his mind screamed. Okay, yes, I fancy the woman. Sleeping next to her these last few nights has been both torture and pure bliss. She's smart, funny, sexy, intelligent, and so not my student anymore. He looked at his face in the mirror. My mum always said, I'm not the prettiest pumpkin in the patch, but I am worth something to someone. Would Hermione see him as worth something?

He turned around and leant against the sink. Would she ever consider going on a date? She did imply that she wouldn't mind coming back here to see the Gardens again. Perhaps I could ask formally? Shaking his head and realising he'd spent too much time in the loo, he stalked out to find Hermione and finish the exercise.

Hermione, in the meantime, had finished her toilet needs and was pacing outside, not far from the bathrooms. She was confused. Severus had not given her any other reason to believe he might be interested in anything more than a friendship this week. Yes, they'd shared a bed in the literal sense, and yes, they had fun ditching the sessions, but once the conference ended, what then? Would they go back to their Ministry jobs and the occasional interaction those jobs entailed? Would they go back to simply nodding in the halls as they passed each other?

She wrung her hands as she always did when she was nervous. Wait a minute! He implied they would be coming back to the Gardens this weekend. Perhaps she could hedge the subject around and get a formal arrangement made? Her worry eased a bit. Yes, that's what she'd do, and perhaps from it, maybe more would happen.

Oh, but the feel of his mouth on her thumb. When he sucked, the feeling shot straight from her thumb to her quim. She wanted nothing more than for him to keep sucking that thumb and making her knickers even wetter, a fact she had discovered when she began to walk from the café. She spied him leaving the men's loo, and the sight caught her breath. Sex on legs, she thought. I will so not make it to the end of this retreat without some 'alone' time.

"Are you okay, Hermione? You look flushed," Severus asked as he approached her.

"Oh, yes. Yes, I'm fine. Just a bit worried that you'll walk me into a pond or something," she bluffed.

"Ever the trusting soul, aren't you?" He smiled and just like that, the tension between them melted.